The bets

It was already past 7 pm. 

The laboratory was as agitated as always. One of the superior scientists was walking through the room, watching his restless subordinates working hard on their projects.  

He was the Principal of the Laboratory encharged of the experiments in Halden. It was dirty work. All the time they were doing atrocious things with humans as if they were puppets that they could just manipulate as they pleased.  

The Principal did not care about other lives. He himself had admitted a lot of times that he was just a sadist, frivolous and selfish scientist that happened to have talent enough to fulfill his wishes and be promoted. 

That night, the experiments would be promissive. They had good guinea pigs these days, which were reacting well with the numerous chemical processes needed in most of the procedures.  

Finally, he, the idealizer of the Project Svartalfheim, was seeing good progress on his favorite guinea pig.  

Besides, there was that man called Casper. He seemed to be a stubborn one, a strong-willed man with endless amounts of energy and determination. In short, his personality was exactly what the Principal most liked. The stubborn ones always lived more in comparison with the others. 

Just as he was rambling about these events that would come in that night, a Ridire burst inside the laboratory, gasping and flustered. 

"What do you want, shrimp?" That was the way he referred to every Ridire who showed their faces in front of him.  

"T-the prisoners… They are…! They are starting a fuss. A big one!" He yelled, trying to catch his breath meanwhile. 

"Hey, you, what's your name? I forgot." He called for a scientist that probably was more than two years working with him. "Aah, that's not important, forget what I said. Just turn on the big screen. 

"You, shrimp, say to me where the show is happening." 

The Ridire looked to him with a mix of anger and surprise.  

"B-but, that's not a show, not this time. It's more like a slaughter, right in the canteen of…" 

"Put in the screen of the cameras of all the canteens." The man was with his heart going wild, he wasn't intending to lose just one second of his little lab rats eating themselves and growing stronger. 

"Shut up, shrimp. If you don't want to do your job, at least sit on whatever place you find and root with us! 

"Ooh, look! We arrived in time to see the first blood!" 

When the giant screen showed a bunch of different windows, each one with a different camera, one of them drew their attention. It was the camera of the canteen from Block F. 

"I will bet in the Dark elf, who wanna go against me!?" The Principal yelled, and the scientists really started to bet.  

Dumbfounded, the inexperienced Ridire could just sit quietly and witness the chaos happening at that canteen. 

…

After the first punch, everything went crazy.  

Prisoner after prisoner started to broke the initial formation and just go in a wild rush to break the faces of every single person who appeared in front of them.  

Casper was not expecting less from those men. He knew that they were not the most experienced ones in tactical battles with large numbers of people, so he knew that things would go this way.  

"The only thing is that I can't just go with the flow and get absorbed by this environment. If everyone will just go with the Fight or flight way, I need to be the person who will think here." 

In the middle of that big brawl, Casper was opening his way until he could find Ragnar. 

The goal was to beat that guy and draw the attention of all the prisoners there. He needed to finish everything as quickly as possible. 

"The most dangerous thing here is the hypothetical scenario where these guys drag this battle outside the canteen and start to infect the prisoners of other Blocks. If this happens, the situation may go out of my control." 

Just as Casper was thinking about this and struggling to find Ragnar, a table flew towards him, making him jump to the side to avoid it.  

He felt a bit of pain in his ankle, but hopefully, it would not hurt as much as it did in the previous battles. He had rested for long days, although not enough to recover completely.  

Casper looked to where that table came from, and who launched it against him. It was a man with a skinny body, but that had the strength to wield those heavy tables and throw them around.  

It became even worse when he started to grab people from their legs and throw them as well.  

He wasn't aiming at anyone in specific, but the way he was doing it was making things difficult for Casper.  

He looked around, searching for a way to approach that guy. If he went there carelessly, the enemy would cut him in half.  

"Hey!" Alfar appeared beside Casper, which startled him since he thought that he was caught in a battle after the clash.  

"Ah, good that you came, help me to do something!" 

The skinny guy was holding a prisoner in his hands, carrying him as if he did not weigh at all. The guy didn't try to fight against it, his neck was already broken after he smashed him in the ground.  

He was ready to throw that guy away and maybe hit one or two people with his human projectile, but something entered in his sight. 

A white-haired man was carrying one of the metallic benches like a battering ram and running in his direction.  

Just as it was about to collide with his body, the skinny man stretched his arms and gripped the bench. He lifted it, raising Casper as well. That man with inhuman strength was about to slam the bench in the ground and probably broke one or two legs of that strange prisoner.  

Nevertheless, someone appeared from behind Casper in a rush towards him. Alfar slid in the ground and smashed his feet in the knee of the skinny man; his leg warped backward in a strange way and he fell to the ground, agonizing.

"Good work! In the end, you are not as bad in a fight as I thought you would." Casper punched him on his shoulder. 

"Cut the bullshit, there he is." Alfar pointed with his index finger to Ragnar, who was brutally beating some prisoners from the ally Faction. 

He was accompanied by two other men.  

One had two mechanical arms implanted in the middle of the back blades. The other had his body regenerating all the time in the most grotesque and strange manners as if it wasn't able to heal properly.  

"We will need to best the three of them! Are you going for it, man?" 

"And you still ask? Just lead the way." Alfar nodded.  

They burst through the canteen avoiding the battle as they could. It was a big place, but they could close the distance in no time.  

As the trio noticed their arrival, they prepared for the fight.  

Before Ragnar could do something, he engaged in a fight with some prisoners that came furiously towards him, sending endlessly blows.  

The tattooed guy dodged every single one, even though they were coming in all directions. 

Casper noticed that whatever was contributing to that impressive feat, was something far beyond skill. Just for his movements, someone versed in martial arts like Casper could tell that he was not trained the least. It was something else… 

Whoever, the White warrior didn't have enough time to put more thought on that matter.  

The guy with extra arms and the other that regenerates were coming against them.  

Casper was doubting that he and Alfar had the synergy needed to fight together and cooperate without previous plans, so he was trying to choose which one would be best for him to pick.  

However, before he could get to a conclusion, Alfar rushed forward, engaging with the man who's got the mechanic arms. 

The extra arms promptly stretched towards him at a speed that certainly showed how deadly those things could be. 

Alfar surprisingly could swiftly avoid the right one and gripped the left. His feet slid in the floor, such was the power of that weapon, but he could endure. 

"You get the another, let this one with me!" Casper could see some strange veins popping up in Alfar's arms, which made him wonder what kind of thing it was. 

"He is damn strong! How it can be…!" Casper nearly got punched in the face by the other guy while he was rambling about Alfar.

Because of his confusion, he nearly forgot him.  

However, he could duck just in time to avoid the punch. The man was with some kind of improvised brass knuckles, so it would surely pull out a tooth or two if it landed.  

"Now… I am in a dilemma… How the hell do I kill someone like this guy!?" 

Casper had an idea… Or better, a bet. But he was not sure.